Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s Royal Opera production tells the story of a Japanese geisha named Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly), who agrees to marry dashing US Naval lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton. She believes that it is a marriage of love, but Pinkerton intends the marriage to only be a temporary arrangement.

The story

Puccini was entranced by David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly (based on a popular short story by John Luther Long) when he saw it in London in 1900. He harnessed the talents of librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (with whom Puccini had created La bohème and Tosca) to adapt Cio-Cio-San’s tragic tale for the operatic stage.

The music

Puccini drew on Japanese folk melodies for the score, one of his most evocative and atmospheric. In Act I, Cio-Cio-San expresses her radiant happiness in ‘Ancora un passo’, and the two lovers rapturously declare their love for each other in the passionate duet ‘Viene la sera’. In Act II the mood becomes increasingly strained, as in ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ when Cio-Cio-San longs for the ‘fine day’ when her husband will return to her.

The production

The romantic exoticism of 19th-century European images of Japan – an integral part of Madama Butterfly’s character as a piece – inspire co-directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s elegant production for The Royal Opera.

The cast:

Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho performs the role of Cio-Cio-San while Argentine tenor Marcelo Puente makes his Royal Opera debut as Pinkerton. The performance is conducted by Music Director of The Royal Opera Antonio Pappano.

The event, hosted by Head Staff Director at Royal Opera House Amy Lane, offered an in-depth look at Puccini’s heartbreaking opera and its history on stage at Covent Garden.

Lane was joined by the star of this year’s revival, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho. Jaho sings the role of the tragic heroine Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of dashing American officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, who finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage.

In addition, journalist Lesley Downer offered a closer look at Japan in the 19th century and the role of the Sadayakko, also known as a Japanese geisha or dancer.

The Insights event also included several performance excerpts including the opera’s famous flower duet and 'Un bel di vedremo'.

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For many ballerinas, the role of Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty is the role they aspire to dance from a very young age.

Principal of The Royal Ballet Akane Takada is no different and in this film she explains why it is such an iconic role for dancers, as well as revealing the role's technical challenges.

The film sees Takada and Bulgarian dancer Valeri Hristov perfect the ballet’s famous ‘Rose Adage’ – one of the most challenging pieces of choreography in The Royal Ballet’s repertory.

The set-piece requires extremely precise technique, as attested to by Takada:

‘The Rose Adage is the hardest part of the ballet,’ reveals the Japanese dancer. ‘You stand on one leg and balance as you take each prince's hand one by one – you really need stamina for it.’

The film focuses on the endurance and strength required to execute the dance’s challenging balances. Over the decades it has been performed by some of the Company’s most famous female dancers including Margot Fonteyn, Darcey Bussell and Marianela Nuñez.

‘Now that I’ve done it,' says Takada, who made her debut as Princess Aurora in 2014, 'I know that it’s the most difficult role that I’ve ever done.’

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The Sleeping Beauty runs until 14 March 2017. Tickets are sold out, but returns may become available. Further tickets are released every Friday for performances in the following week in Friday Rush.

The production is staged with generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet, Hans and Julia Rausing, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund and is sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels, with the original production (2006) made possible by The Linbury Trust, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson and Marina Hobson OBE.

As part of their ongoing summer tour of Japan, The Royal Ballet was invited to run two days of workshops on 27 and 28 June 2016 for children in Kumamoto, an area which was badly damaged by earthquakes in April this year.

The workshops, organised by the Arts and Kids Foundation Japan and led by Royal Ballet Education Teacher David Pickering and Elizabeth Foster were held in local schools and involved over 400 children, introducing them to ballet and dance. Many of them have been unable to attend school since the disaster, which caused extensive damage to the local infrastructure.

Royal Ballet First Soloist Yuhui Choe, who was born in Fukuoka, participated in the opening session with Royal Ballet Principal Nehemiah Kish, in a workshop based on The Royal Ballet’s production of Giselle. They also met the headmaster who explained the effects of the earthquake which left many of the children with post-traumatic stress.

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet said: ‘It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to reach out to some of the children who have been affected by the recent earthquakes and devastation in Kumamoto. Ballet has the power to uplift and inspire so we very much hope that by going to Kumamoto with Yuhui Choe and Nehemiah Kish we were able to bring some joy to the region during this difficult time.’

Mr. Kabashima, the Kumamoto Governor added: ‘The Kumamoto prefecture suffered seriously as a result of the earthquakes this year and is still suffering two months on with more than 5,000 people classed as refugees. We were delighted to welcome The Royal Ballet and their inspiring workshops to our community which I’m sure will raise the morale in Kumamoto.’

The prospect of heading out on tour is always exciting but perhaps none more so than a trip to Japan. The Company always look forward to performing in the Land of the Rising Sun, and this trip will be my fifth time dancing there.

After undergoing hip surgery four months ago, I was unsure whether I would make it back to full fitness in time. But after a lot of hard work and rehab I was passed fit and ready just in time for tour.

Packing for tour is always a challenge. It’s a struggle to squeeze a whole month's worth of dance wear, everyday clothes and evening wear for events into a single suitcase. But we do get tour boxes and bags for our stage makeup and ballet shoes, which is a big help.

A long haul flight is not something any dancer enjoys. You dread how your body will feel when you finally touch down. We take lots of precautions like wearing compression garments to help swelling and circulation, melatonin to recover from jetlag and adding hydration tablets to our water.

We opened the tour with Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Theatre. As always, the support from our Japanese audience was incredible. The tour's opening performance was my first time on stage after surgery and I couldn’t have asked for a better reception. I was a little more nervous than usual but once the first act was done it felt as if I'd never been away. After the show we were all overwhelmed by the sea of ballet fans outside stage door, asking us to sign their programmes and taking pictures of all of us, despite the fact it was pouring with rain. Some of them I recognized from my first trip to Tokyo 11 years ago!

Principal dancers are a lot more used to this kind of attention but as corps de ballet members we aren't used to it! It's incredibly humbling when you're asked to sign an autograph or pose for a selfie. Japanese ballet fans truly are some of the best in the world.

After a week spent rehearsing, performing, recovering from jet-lag and attempting to connect to wi-fi wherever possible, we wrapped up the week with a generous party hosted by the tour's promoters NBS (the Japanese Performing Arts Foundation). The party has become a tradition and a great chance to relax after a hard week.

We do have days off, and this year, a group of us took the opportunity to head to Tokyo Disneyland where we had a fantastic time. The theme park is huge and although this meant a lot of walking, it was nice to stretch our legs outdoors. Rest time is hugely important for ballet dancers, especially as we have plenty more shows coming up as we take Romeo and Juliet as well as Gisellearound the country.

Later this month, The Royal Ballet head to Japan for their annual international tour.

From 16 June to 7 July 2016, the Company will visit several venues to delight Japanese fans, beginning the tour in the capital city Tokyo before making their way to a further four cities: Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuyama.

Ahead of the tour, Principals of the Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli recorded messages to Japanese audiences. Cuthertson said she was 'really looking forward to being in Japan again to perform for such a warm audience.' Bonelli revealed he was excited to visit the country because 'my wife is Japanese and we're bringing our daughter there for the first time.' Watch both films here.

Speaking of the Company’s return, Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O’Hare said:

‘Touring to Japan is always a highlight for the Company, the audiences are so warm and receptive and I'm delighted that this summer we'll present two masterpieces from The Royal Ballet repertory Romeo and Juliet and Giselle, showcasing the breadth, artistry and talent of our world-class dancers.’

Nagasaki is known to the world for the worst of reasons. But the tragic events of 9 August 1945 often obscure the rich history of one of Japan’s most traditionally cosmopolitan cities. It makes the perfect setting for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – a work that, unusually, reflects the realities of Nagasaki of the time.

Unusually for a Japanese city, Nagasaki was built around foreign interaction. In the mid-16th century, Portuguese missionary traders made the first European contact with Japan, and they did so in Nagasaki. The city was then a small fishing enclave, but, boosted by burgeoning European trade, it soon expanded. However, in 1633 the Tokugawa shogunate passed official decrees that effectively cut Japan off from the outside world: no international trade, no Western foreigners and absolutely no Christianity (which had gained a small following in the south) – on pain of death.

But an exception was made for Nagasaki. A small contingent of Dutch traders were relegated to the tiny manmade island of Dejima in the Nagaski bay. Allowed to come ashore once or twice a year in heavily-monitored missions, they traded with and through Nagasaki. The city itself, on the southern island of Kyushu and over 1,000 km from the capital Edo (now Tokyo), was deemed distant enough to dissipate and control any foreign influence.

Everything changed when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed his ‘Black Ships’ armada into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and 1854, demanding through gunboat diplomacy that Japan open up to international trade. After an intense period of domestic civil upheaval, 1868 brought the Meiji Restoration, and a new Japanese government that voraciously absorbed (and imposed) all the Western knowledge it could in an attempt to modernize rapidly.

While much of the country remained off-limits, Nagasaki – historically equipped to handle foreigners – proved an ideal port from which to conduct international trade and to host the foreigners overseeing it. For the first time, Westerners were able to experience Japanese culture in a tangible, meaningful way. The two populations cautiously began to intermingle.

It was through this initial exposure in Nagasaki that the japonisme movement in Europe exploded, presenting an idealized, often fantastical, version of Japan and its culture. But there also came true and fictionalized narratives of life in Nagasaki itself, by then a world-wide hub of trade and foreign interaction. One was John Luther Long’s novella Madame Butterfly, based on a true story told to him by his sister, a missionary based in Nagasaki.

A foreign naval officer fathers a child with a Japanese woman and disappears. This is not the comic farcical plot of The Mikado: this was a reality in Nagasaki of the time. And more often than not, the result was tragedy: mother and child often faced vicious criticism and ostracism. Trading with and learning from foreigners was accepted: physical relations beyond were not. Foreign men came and went, while their partners and offspring suffered the harsh consequences.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly presents very real subject matter; the protagonists had many real-life counterparts in Nagasaki. The opera transcends the typical japonisme elements of cherry blossoms and geisha, to tell a sobering truth behind the fantasy of Japan – with all the intense excitement, joy and sorrow of cosmopolitan life in late 19th-century Nagasaki.

Royal Ballet Principal Steven McRae has been given a manga makeover by Dancin' Magazine following the Company's recent Tour to Japan.

The comic tells the story of ballet student Dan who teams up with Steven to defeat the rat monsters. It was created by Takafumi Adachi.

'I wanted to reach out to both children and adults, and encourage them to pursue their dreams', Steven says. 'I adore the artistic qualities of manga and I believe it captures the passion and determination needed to excel in life. This ballet and manga collaboration is aimed to inspire.'

Friday will see the first of five performances of Swan Lake, although unfortunately Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg announced today they will not be performing the leading roles on Friday evening. They will be replaced by Steven McRae and Roberta Marquez, who will dance in addition to their published performance on Saturday 13 July matinee.

Talking about the decision, Alina and Johan said:

We are very sorry and sad not to be performing our scheduled performance of Swan Lake with the Company. Unfortunately, due to our recent injuries, although recovering well, we are still unable to meet the physical demands that Swan Lake specifically requires. We both love performing in Japan and look forward to appearing back here soon.'